The International Red Cross’ War Against Israel

For nearly four decades, many in the international community have insisted that Jews are forbidden to live in Judea, Samaria, Gaza (Yesha), “eastern Jerusalem,” and the Golan — areas conquered by Israel in 1967. Leading this fight was and is a private Swiss organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The ICRC was the first international organization to charge that “the presence of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories is contrary to the Geneva Convention,” and therefore “unlawful.” “Any measure designed to expand or consolidate settlements is also illegal. Confiscation of land to build or expand settlements is similarly prohibited.”

And the world listens, because the ICRC isn’t just another NGO — it is the official recognized authority on the Fourth Geneva Convention (GC IV). Its decisions, therefore, were and are crucial in determining international law and vilifying Israel. Every judicial condemnation of Israel cites theGC and follows the ICRC’s interpretation. This explains why the international community and courts have accepted ICRC’s decisions that “Israeli (Jewish) settlements violate international law” without question.

Based on The Hague Convention, GC IV was drawn up after World War Two to protect innocent civilians and restrict brutal occupations. Unilaterally, the ICRC turned it into a weapon to delegitimize and demonize Israel. Meeting secretly in the early 1970s in Geneva, the ICRC determined that Israel was in violation of the GC IV. That’s been “the law” ever since.

And there’s no appeal, because all decisions and protocols of the ICRC are closed — even the identities of the people involved are secret. Without transparency or due process, ICRC rulings became “international law.” Their condemnations of Israel provide the sole basis for accusing Israel of “illegal occupation” of all territory conquered in 1967.

It’s a legal fraud.

Article 49 of GC IV says: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

According to the ICRC, this forbids Jews from living in Judea, Samaria, Golan and eastern Jerusalem — areas conquered by Israel in 1967 — even though they moved there voluntarily, and prohibits any form of government assistance to them, including roads, utilities, schools and clinics. The ICRC’s position contradicts all written agreements which confirm the right of Jews to live in their ancestral homeland — such as the League of Nations and British Mandate, and the Oslo Accords.

Article 49 obviously refers to the territory of another country, or sovereign power; Judea, Samaria, and Gaza don’t fit this definition. These areas were illegally occupied by Jordan and Egypt between 1948 and 1967. TheICRC of course, differs, but has never satisfactorily answered the question as to which state this territory belongs.

Holding these territories in limbo for a future Palestinian state, which may never come to fruition, whose borders are undefined, and whose intentions are openly hostile, is absurd. SuchICRC antagonism to Israel, however, is pervasive.

During WWII, the ICRC visited concentration camps and gave the Nazis a pass. After the war, they provided false passports to escaping Nazi war criminals.

Their website demonstrates their humanitarian efforts around the world, but when it comes to the Middle East their story is one-sided. During two decades of constant terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, theICRC said nothing. They have written several stories about the suffering of “Palestinians” in Gaza and Lebanon as a result of Israeli actions, without mentioning the terrorist attacks that prompted a response.

The ICRC condemned IDF actions to stop terrorism in Jenin, Lebanon, and Gaza as “massacres.” They have consistently condemned Israel for “violations of Palestinian civil and human rights,” and accused Israel of “war crimes.” Sometimes, when these lies were exposed, theICRC has recanted — but not often and never with full disclosure.

Because the ICRC lacks transparency, there’s no way to find out how and why they made their decisions, or who made them. If they have nothing to hide, why the secrecy?

The Red Cross should stick to helping people in need, and not waste resources bashing Israel.

The author, a former assistant professor of history, is a writer and journalist living in Jerusalem.

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21 Comments, 21 Threads

1.
Lynn

I am sure they are in full support of their brother the Red Crescent who is used by the soldiers of Allah to run weapons and stage orchestrated propaganda films showing the brutality of the Israel soldier.

All the world’s a stage and we are but dupes in the fevered dervish of the Islamic Caliphate, while the dhimmis delight in the drama.

I keep hearing the sounds of the planes slamming into the World Trade Center, and the bodies slamming into the ground, while the world gathers together and leans toward the lovers of death.

To hear that the Red Cross has been hijacked and it’s symbol turned over to those made victorious by terror, is another ‘sign’ of the times. Is our veneer of civilization so thin that it can be scratched away, exposing the barbarism lurking below in just a generation? Yes it seems so.

Another article about Israel. It seems like there’s at least one a day, sometimes two. And yet, they never get more than twenty comments. There’s no support for the issue here. I wonder why it gets so much screen time.

Really, guys, the solution (from my standpoint) is simple. Ban the Red Cross from all land under Israeli control (if that bothers the Red Crescent boys, ban them too, and then see how frequently Arabs get taken to hospital); seize ALL of their assets in this country, expel the Red Cross; pull out of any cooperative ventures with them. Revoke any Israeli signatures to any agreements where the Red Cross is involved.

In short, kick the bastards out, declare any and all of their employees persona-non-grata, and cease to recognize any authority they may attempt to wield.

Then they can scream like the apes they are all they want and it won’t make a difference.

Moho – what is happening in Israel is a prelude to what is about to happen in Europe and the US if you don’t pay attention. The release of the Libyan murderer (who took 270 innocent lives) from Scottish jail recently and the welcome party for him gives you a glimpse of who Israel has to deal with on a daily basis.
BTW, you always have the option of not reading the articles about Israel if they offend you in any way.

@4. Good:
Based on his record “Moho”- would enjoy reading day and night adoring, fawning posts about Zelaya, Hugo, Fidel + plus all Bolshevik leaders having good suntanned complexion. The pesky Jews – except for the Commie ones who are training his GOD! The Joker – piss him off real bad.

The Red Cross office in midtown Toronto had a poster outside their building with photos of various people. Mostly from the 3rd world and of course, they had a woman wearing a hijab. Why do these international organizations, who are largely funded and headed by people of European origin, insist on emphasizing those who take, rather than give?

I’ve had no use for that agency since my uncle mentioned the coffee and donuts the ICRC brought to the troops in France in 1942, and made them pay in cash. I’ve always figured that coffee and those donuts were purchased by contributions made by the good people of the U.S.A.

I almost didn’t read the article because these things are so obvious and well-known to those who follow international – especially European – affairs that it just seemed one more bit of evidence, unnecessary to me, of the bum rap Israel takes daily.

It has been an issue as long as I can remember, so it is tiring. But it is an unresolved issue, and thus deserves continual mention. I am not sure Americans can ever quite get how much antipathy to Jews remains in Europe, how much of it spills over into estimations of Israel’s policies, and how much the American Left is influenced by that. I don’t say that all criticism of Israel is antisemitic, but that a large percentage of antisemites do not recognise this about themselves, and hide behind very poor rationalizations.

Its relative importance is beside the point. On a website that purports to be have a direct writer to reader relationship, this issue has absolutely no interest to the readers. And yet, there is an article here about it everyday. Ask yourself why, and then follow up that question with what else is being fed down the pipeline. They are trying to convince the readership that its an important issue, and i’ve been clocking in here for over a month and I can tell you that it is not an important issue to the people reading here. That leads me to believe that Israel has no support amongst the readership here–not a hard stretch. Outside of the rhetoric that it is Americas duty to pour money into the endless drain of the middle east rather than spend it at home or let Americans keep it with less taxation, most people really don’t give a crap about it. And why should they?

The point here is not Israel, which is, in a way, the canary in the mine, but the International Red Cross and other tranzis, such as Amnesty, and their attitude to Western democracies. Israel is a democracy but it gets attacked all the time; its enemies have far greater human rights problems, yet there are far fewer attacks. That needs to be said over and over again, not least because the people who complain about how much gets written about Israel have not understood what the issues are.

His Commie arrogance carried him away to the point that he feels he is both the owner and moderator of this forum. Moho wants to purge certain subject from this forum which is not suiting his rabid leftist creed; what others might think is irrelevant to the Commies. Admonishing an accepted author is OK for these geniuses operating under aliases… They would post turgid, bloviating screeds on this forum adulating every Commie scumbag; – they get ecstatic when the scumbag belongs to the Politically Correct Hex#663300 color group.

He prefers us to Dem.Underground because over there he would be drown and outbidden by the vulgar, crass visitors, whereas here we treat them as if they were from the Queen’s entourage.
Have fun, buddy.

Perhaps I was not clear. It is important to people, in the same way that politicians giving jobs to their friends is important to people. It’s just not surprising. We want to have the information available nonetheless.

You clearly don’t care about the issue, as is your right. Your conclusion that others are not interested does not follow from the evidence you cite.

Okay, now take a breath before responding. Let me go over that last point more emphatically. Your conclusion does not come close to following from the evidence you cite.

You may in fact be correct that few people here are that interested. You just haven’t given good evidence that this is true.

I would like to commend Pajamas Media for drawing attention to immediate threats to democracy and freedom, particularly threats that are lead by civil society institutions, media authorities and western governments. It is extremely concerning to me that it appears that the hatred and political passion that led to so many unjust acts and so much extreme suffering during the last century and for so many prior generations is alive and well and continues to be led by well educated actors with high standing in the world. This article shows the danger and peril that freedom and the rule of law continue to face. Please keep up the good work. Your voices carry a strong message that is often not heard, particularly when those like the ICRC, who supposedly speak and act for high ideals, are severely compromised by hatred, by foolishness, and by destructive ideologies.

Walterc: I’ve had no use for that agency since my uncle mentioned the coffee and donuts the ICRC brought to the troops in France in 1942.

As far as I know, the only troops in France during 1942 were German. If the IRC were charging them, then that was surely a good thing.
On a different tack, my reason for disliking the IRC is they have been known to give help to illegals trying to get into the UK. They set up camps on the French coast which, among other things, gave advice on how to claim asylum and milk the benefits system. I can’t see how this is anything to do with their raison d’etre.